(Toronto: January 23, 2007) In a letter submitted today to the federal Parliamentary Committee responsible for reviewing Bill C-30 – the proposed Clean Air Act – a group of eight environmental organizations are calling for the Committee to begin consideration of the Bill immediately. The group also offered its support and expertise to the process to ensure that parliamentarians who are considering the Bill have all the necessary information they feel they need to make the Clean Air Act as effective as possible. A package of recommendations has been developed in collaboration with the Climate Action Network (CAN).

Arguing that Canada needs aggressive action to protect the environment and fight climate change, the group says it is in the best interest of Canadians to get the machinery of Parliament moving so that the government can incorporate improvements into the Bill. The centerpiece of the government’s announcements on the environment, the proposed Clean Air Act has widely been recognized as an inadequate response to the challenges of climate change and air pollution.

In a joint statement, the environmental groups state, “We believe that all parties understand the need for urgent action on climate change and clean air. We are asking the committee to devote their full attention to quickly improving the proposed Act. We expect that the Committee can amend Bill C-30 within a time period on the order of four weeks, so a strong Act can be implemented as soon as possible.”